Background of the Invention
Environmental issues and concerns have led to an increased awareness on the part of individuals, businesses, environmental groups and governmental agencies for the need to recycle materials associated with consumer products. A major category of recyclable materials are containers, which include beverage containers. Beverage containers are typically made of plastic, glass or metals including aluminum or a bi-metal composition of aluminum and steel. Separate recycling machines have been previously devised or proposed for receiving and handling one of plastic, glass and metal containers for recycling purposes.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,454,028 to Vetter, issued Jun. 12, 1984 and entitled "Can Sorting Method and Apparatus," a can sorting method and apparatus is disclosed. In particular, a customer-operated machine is provided for receiving a number of containers and for separating, counting and documenting the count of the containers, while returning rejected containers to the customer or user. A plurality of containers can be fed into the hopper of the apparatus. The apparatus initially determines if the can is made of aluminum and if the can is empty. The apparatus displays the number of accepted containers, the current redemption value per unit of weight of aluminum and the money that is to be paid to the customer. Processing of so-called deformed cans by the apparatus is also disclosed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,512,253 to LaBarge, issued Apr. 23, 1985 entitled "Apparatus for Processing Recyclable Containers," describes a recyclable container apparatus for detecting the type of container material. In particular, an eddy current detection unit is provided, as well as an apparatus for measuring the height of the container and for issuing a receipt relating to the totals of one or more different types of containers that were received. The patent indicates the apparatus is able to distinguish between metal and nonmetal containers, and further between aluminum and steel containers. To determine whether or not to accept or reject a particular container, the apparatus determines the height and weight of a container. The height and weight information is also used in determining whether or not the container is empty.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,907,087 to Tenaka, issued Sep. 23, 1975 and entitled "Device for Discharging Refund Coins and Crushing Metallic Cans of Different Sizes" relates to a can crushing apparatus that dispenses an amount of money based upon the size of the received container. That is, larger cans result in the dispensing of a larger amount of money than smaller cans.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,091,725, issued May 30, 1978, entitled "Container Crushing Device," and 3,792,765, issued Feb. 19, 1974, entitled "Apparatus for Crushing Containers and Dispensing Tokens," both to Arp, relate to a container crusher that is able to count the number of containers and which controls the crushing operation by determining whether or not the particular container weighs less than a predetermined maximum weight.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,483,248 to Ostreng, issued Nov. 20, 1984 entitled "Aluminum/Steel Can Separator and Baler," describes an aluminum/steel can separator, which indicates it is known to separate steel from aluminum using a magnet. Upstream of the position in the machine where steel cans are removed, there is a light source which is used to count containers that are processed by the machine.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,802,631, issued Apr. 9, 1974 to Boyd entitled "Waste Separating and Recycling system", describes a recycling system in which there is a separation among component parts including plastics, glass and metals. Plastic materials are separated by using air to remove the light plastic materials from the heavier materials. Magnetic separating means are used to separate out metallic substances.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,535 to Snyder, issued Feb. 23, 1988 entitled "Machine for Removing Caps and Base Cups from Plastic Bottles," describes a machine for detecting different materials that make up the body and base of a plastic container. The patent also discloses the use of sensors for determining whether or not the plastic is a clear or a colored plastic.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,715,920 to Ruppman, issued Dec. 29, 1987 entitled "Apparatus and Method for Recycling Beverage Containers," discloses an apparatus for recycling plastic beverage containers. This patent recognizes that the base of certain plastic containers may be made of a material different than the body.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,170 to Schulze, Jr., issued May 5, 1981, and entitled "Solenoid Actuated Container Crusher" discloses a recycling machine that includes solenoids for crushing containers, end-to-end, using a moving head and a stationary anvil. The machine also includes storage for crushed cans and a magnetic metal and glass rejecter, with an overweight can rejecter when used for aluminum.
U.S. Reissue Pat. No. 27,643, issued May 8, 1973, to Meyers entitled "Process and Apparatus for Collection of Metal Containers" disclosed a recycling apparatus in which containers are moved along a trackway, and non-magnetic containers are gravitationally separated from the trackway. The separated containers are crushed, stored and a token is automatically dispensed, while magnetic containers are separately stored.
Despite these numerous efforts directed to facilitating the recycling of beverage containers, there is an immediate and pressing need to provide a relatively compact, convenient and government certifiable recycling machine that is able, at one location and in one system on a stand-alone, automated, and unmanned basis, to reliably receive and crush beverage containers, regardless of their size and whether the containers are made of metal, plastic, glass or some other distinguishing material.